Worceser Sharks' Sena Acolatse goes on offensive

Monday

Oct 29, 2012 at 6:00 AM

He hasn’t reached even tropical storm status yet, but Sena Acolatse is definitely becoming a threat. The second-year defenseman had another strong game yesterday in the Sharks’ 5-2 victory over Bridgeport. Acolatse was 1-2-3 and has five points in seven games, three of them goals.

By Bill Ballou TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

He hasn’t reached even tropical storm status yet, but Sena Acolatse is definitely becoming a threat.

The second-year defenseman had another strong game yesterday in the Sharks’ 5-2 victory over Bridgeport. Acolatse was 1-2-3 and has five points in seven games, three of them goals. Going back to the final 10 games of the 2011-12 season, he has nine goals in 17 games.

“It’s a matter of gaining more confidence, I think,” was Acolatse’s take on his offensive surge. “It started at the end of the year last season, when we were sort of out of the race. I figured there was nothing to lose if I got more aggressive.”

Twice in those final 10 games of 2011-12, Acolatse had a two-goal performance and narrowly missed one again yesterday as he hit a post with a wrist shot in the third period.

“Oh, and it was a wide-open net,” he said. “I still can’t believe I missed it.”

The Sharks’ lineup was a bit different than the one that was hammered in Manchester on Saturday night. Frazer McLaren was back in, while Jimmy Bonneau sat it out. Marek Viedensky and Travis Oleksuk were both scratched with Brandon Mashinter returning to action after a two-game absence and James Livingston active after having missed three games.

Brodie Reid, Mikael Tam and Taylor Doherty comprise the injured list while Matt Pelech served the second game of his suspension.

It was the fourth smallest crowd in franchise history, but it put the Sharks over the one-million mark in attendance. The gate of 2,061 brought Worcester’s all-time total to 1,001,897. The honorary millionth fan will be recognized at the Nov. 17 game.

The Sharks’ average for 241 home games is 4,157. Their biggest crowd to date is 10,170 last Feb. 24. The smallest is 1,810 last April 4.

Scott Pellerin has spent a lot of time here, both as a player for the IceCats and assistant coach for Manchester, but has returned this weekend in a new role — head coach of the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.

He had two stints here as a player. Pellerin spent part of the 1996-97 season as an IceCat, helping Worcester win a division title, then was back in 2004-04, his final season as a pro. Before being hired by the Sound Tigers to replace Brent Thompson, Pellerin spent six years as Mark Morris’ assistant in Manchester.

That worked out really well since Pellerin makes his permanent home in southern New Hampshire, about a half-hour drive from the Verizon Wireless Arena. His family is still there and he’s able to keep in touch a lot more easily than if he had taken a job in, say, Rockford.

“We knew this would eventually have to happen,” Pellerin said of the geographical change. “Nobody can stay as lucky as I’ve been forever. We talked about it, and I knew that if I were going to continue in this profession there’d come a time when I’d have to head out on my own as a head coach.

“This opened up and it seemed like a tremendous opportunity, so I was glad to accept the offer. So far, everybody’s been great, and I’m glad I did.”

The Sharks have gone, like, forever since they scored a shorthanded goal.

They have not had one this season, and it is 57 games going back to Dec. 17, 2011, when Sean Sullivan had one in the Sharks’ 5-2 victory in Binghamton. Even then, Sullivan converted a penalty shot awarded when Worcester was a man down. Tommy Wingels had a standard shorthanded goal two games before that.

Worcester has had 242 penalties to kill during the streak and has surrendered 10 shorthanded goals to the other side, including three already this season.

Bridgeport’s Kirill Kabonov, who suffered a nasty skate cut on his left wrist here Friday night, had the injury surgically repaired and is expected to recover. … The Sharks are off until next weekend, when they do another 3-in-3. It starts with a game at Providence on Friday night. … Worcester finished with a 2-4-1 record for October. … Due to concerns with the approaching storm, the Sound Tigers took a bus back to Bridgeport after the game to get their belongings, then took another back to Springfield to spend the night there.